CNET Top 5: Kickstarter blockbusters

CNET Top 5: Kickstarter blockbusters

3:02 /
March 18, 2013

The top five crowd-funded projects on Kickstarter that have raked in over a million dollars in donations.

If you want to know where the most interesting, far-fetched, and anticipated
gadgets are coming from these days, look no further than Kickstarter.com. Since
its launch in 2009, this crowd funding site has helped inventors, film makers,
writers, musicians and game designers, pursue projects that were once
unthinkable.
And while many Kickstarter projects don't get funded and disappear into a puff of
vaporware, a handful of them have turned into million dollar ideas.
I'm Donald Bell, and in this Top 5 I'll be counting down the highest grossing
Kickstarter projects of the past year that raked in over a million dollars.
Starting off at #5, Double Fine Adventure. This is a classic point and click graphic
adventure game in the style of Day of the Tentacle and The Secret of Monkey
Island - the kind of game that just doesnt get made anymore. The folks at
Double Fine Productions want to change that, so they asked for $400,000 to
revive the genre with a new game. You gave them over 3.3 million dollars. I think
theyre onto something.
At #4, Reaper Miniature Bones. If you thought that tabletop D&D-style gaming
sessions were a thing of the past, theres around 18,000 project backers here
who beg to disagree. And what do they want? Awesome, super detailed
miniatures of Orcs and dragons, elves and goblins. After raking in over 3.4 million
dollars, our nationwide shortage of miniature Ogres will soon come to an end.
But even more of you prefer to play your role playing games on a computer. So,
coming in at #3: Project Eternity from Obsidian Entertainment. This is a pure
fantasy RPG in the style of Icewind Dale. Itll be out on Windows, Mac, and
Linux, and with around 4 million dollars at their disposal they should have plenty
of resources to pull it off.
But thats small change compared to #2: Ouya (ooooya). This is an open gaming
console based on Android that is poised to threaten the big guys like Xbox and
Playstation. The hardware and controller were designed by Yves Behar, famous
for his work on the Jawbone Jambox. But the crazy thing is that the whole
system costs just $99. Its an awesome idea, its great for indie game developers,
and you guys liked enough to give it 8.6 million dollars.
Alright. And finally, at #1, the Pebble Watch. Who said the watch is dead? With
this guy, you can link up to your Android phone or iPhone and glance your text
messages, control music playback, track your workout. It even tells the time. With
over 10 million dollars in funding, I think its fair to say that the watch is back.
So there you go, five multimillion dollar ideas that you didn't think of. The
takeaway for me here is that you people really love your games. If you count the
miniatures, that's 3 out of the 5. I am in the wrong business. But if you want to
help Kickstart my career, head over to Top 5.CNET.com where you can watch
more videos like this... a lot of them.
I'm Donald Bell, thanks for watching.